Upcycling, Pumpkin Pancakes & Potato Pancakes Or PANCAKES!!

As we all prepare to hunker down for the holidays and our long winter naps, there's been something that I've been thinking about and want to share it with you. I have two specific recipes to post today, recipes that originally come from something else - this basic idea of upcycling that I tossed around a few weeks ago. But how did we get to the point of using a word like upcycling?

Our culture is obsessed with recycling. Everything needs to be recycled. EVERYTHING. That shampoo bottle I pulled out of the trash could become a young child's teething ring some day. Hey, don't shoot the messenger - these are facts. We hover over our office trash receptacles thinking things like, "I bet Gary doesn't even know what single stream means. Plus, I heard he's getting divorced." Just like all of the other things in life, we latch onto one important issue and we have to shove it in every one's face. "Look, I'm using a recycled nalgene bottle!" "I reused rain water to wash my car!"

Birthday Red Velvet Cupcakes

We're backkkkkkk [bitches!]. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use bitches like that because this blog is rated G for content, but it felt right. Just really right.

So after a prolonged hiatus due to the stressors of grad school, particularly the audacity of one professor who assigned us a 10 page paper for finals week, I'm back with a vengenace [insert karate kick sound here].  I've been holed up in an office for the past two weeks creating lesson plans for invisible students and writing papers and as soon as I was free I went straight to the grocery store to stock up on red velvet cupcake ingredients. For those of you who had these red velvet guys back in November, this is that recipe. Not only is it a great comeback gig, but Saturday was my birthday so I went all out here.

Red velvet cupcakes are fun to make for two important reasons. 1. There's so much red dye involved that you feel like you're recreating a crime scene from Dexter. It's fun to walk around the kitchen and say things like "yeah, the perp came at it from this direction". The second reason is that when you accidentally combine baking powder with white vinegar you get an awesome explosion! Who doesn't love that.